Trivia Challenge - Question 3

Q:

There was still quite a bit of undeveloped land available in the Sunland-Tujunga area by the time construction of VHHS was approved. Why was the school built in the location that it was?

The original main building of Plainview Avenue Elementary School,
next to which the new high school was built.

A:

Verdugo stands at its current location is because there were 10 acres of vacant land available adjacent to the already existing Plainview Avenue Elementary School. That school was originally located at what is now the corner of Plainview Avenue and Summitrose Street. Local geography buffs will recognize that as the location of the current VHHS parking lot!
In spite of the school board's initial insistence that there were not enough students for a local high school, by 1939 the high school was bursting at the seams and needed to expand. The logical direction seemed to be towards taking over the site occupied by the elementary school. VHHS took over the elementary school only after assurances were made that a new elementary school would be built within four blocks of its original site. Plainview Avenue Elementary School now stands three blocks north of the high school.